Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Woman, 21, made false rape claims, court told

A WOMAN falsely claimed she was raped outside a Bury nightclub when out celebrating graduating from a beauty course, a court heard. Amie Lever, aged 21, is charged with perverting the course of justice, which she has denied.

At a trial at Bolton Crown Court, which started on Monday, a jury heard that she phoned her mother at 2.30am on July 3, 2009, and was in a “hysterical” state.

She told her parents she had been raped, and the police were called. Lever, of Saltram Close, Radcliffe, told officers that an Asian man, aged about 23 or 24, raped her outside the Sol Viva nightclub.

Rachel Widdicombe, prosecuting, said: “She claimed he dragged her by the arm behind Sol Viva, pushed her up against a wall near some bins by Marks and Spencer.”

But the jury was told that she did not answer some questions and was vague on some of the details.

Officers wanted to collect evidence from the scene to help catch the alleged rapist, but she was unable to give further details about the exact location. She was examined but did not have any injuries physically or intimately.

Her clothes were analysed and samples were taken, but there was no scientific evidence to support her rape claim.

Officers later became concerned that she might not have been telling the truth.

She was later arrested on suspicion perverting the course of justice and she said she lied about the location and that it happened in the ladies’ toilets.

But officers went through CCTV footage inside the club and found that no man went into the toilets at the time of the alleged incident.